ALL the adults, & any adolescent birds who can fly, feed & care for the pooklets. Bluey, the Patriarch or Koro, slept with all broods of pooklets every night, until they were old enough to build their own individual sleeping nests.
Another poster on a forum that I used to post on disagreed with my opinion about something one day, & dismissively suggested I go and talk to my pukekos about it!
So I did ! Aspen Pook just happened to be nearby over the fence at morning tea time.
I gave him a quick summary of the situation, & Aspen duly offered his view (on the poster, not the topic – try as I might I just could not get them interested in politics.)
So I went back to the forum & gave him 🐧 Aspen's opinion! 😎
There have been many "lockdowns" around the world. The word is used for very different approaches. Ours in 2020 was unquestionably a success, while others were half-hearted and failed.
I agree that Delta 2021 is tougher to beat. But when alternative actions to "lockdown" are proposed, we have to be hard-headed and honest about what they really entail.
Part of Victoria's "lockdown" was the use of private security (unlike NZ) and the same has been suggested by opposition parties here. But in Victoria the security breach – and virus outbreak – was so bad it led to a full inquiry and damning findings by the judge.
Unfortunately many of the alternatives are presented as easy options, when they are anything but.
& Victorias lockdown is barely comparable to NZs, apples & oranges. Lockdowns do work, unfortunately, and only work with public buy in. Crys of "we gotta give up!" undermine that public buy in & will ensure we clog up our crappy health system & a lot of sick &/or dead people.
Nope, Labour are doing the right thing, until science says otherwise.
The "no true socialism" thing is a bit like Christians predicting the apocalypse: the general direction might have been outlined, but there aren't any objective milestones along the way. Basically, everyone claims to be on the cusp of it, but heaven has not yet been achieved and everyone who claimed it before was in error: this time we're right, lol.
But NZ and Vic L4 are objectively different, both in specific businesses allowed to be open to the public and in the aggregate stringency index. Also, Vic imposed just enough to induce fatigue, so now they have (possibly superspreader?) anti-lockdown riots.
I’m still waiting for all those who kicked and screamed for the open border with Australia to take personal responsibility for our current situation. After all they were happy to take the revenue and profits.
That squeaky wheel's back with a vengeance. I don't think this government's got the balls to fight it. A particular vaccination rate being enough will be more down to luck than anything else.
Victoria's is recognised as being one of the strictest in the world.
Many, many countries have found a path through covid and are now moving on to a new normal. New Zealand is lagging as our governments policy is lockdown until 90% where there is Delta.
This is completely unrealistic. If you believe the "experts" 90% vaccination won't happen. if you believe lockdown critics, it's unfeasible to keep people locked down until 90% without major societal impacts that will last long after covid is globally accepted.
Dogmatically sticking to lockdowns until 90% is failing this country.
Victoria is far stringent than any other state in lockdown, and it's numbers are beginning to outpace NSW, who are starting to relax lockdown measures.
BTW, what is your problem with the cellphone data from the Google Mobility Report? Don’t like data taken on the ground because it doesn’t suit your ‘critical analysis’ and narrative? Sounds like you’re shooting down the medium (Twitter) instead of addressing the content. Now why would you that?
Please stop spamming this site with your reckons and other brain farts.
For starters, what is/was the stringency index of Victoria during its lockdown. Links required and not to other/more reckons.
What does the Horizon survey show is the possible vaccine uptake of the eligible population of 12+ in NZ? Look it up, Google is your friend. The onus is on you to provide support for your reckons.
Lockdown are not permanent measures, they’re temporary ones. The main reason lockdowns are less effective or fail is because breaches, same as breaches at the border and/or MIQ. When there’s a breach or leak the appropriate action is to correct it not throw away the baby with the bathwater and spit the dummy while getting your nappies in a twist.
Hospitalisation, ICU, and death are major societal impacts too.
Why do you believe “experts” and “lockdown critics” without any critical analysis?
I don't believe them without critical analysis. I'm questioning the pathway through their rhetoric.
Lockdowns cant' be permanent, but when they're the only tool in the toolbox as you haven't been to the hardware store in preparation, you need use your one hammer many times to insert the screws.
Stingency index? does it really matter? the lockdown isn't working. But as a good little authoritarian your response to lockdowns not working is new, better, more stringent lockdowns
Horizons poll is based on the opinion of survey respondents saying they would get the jab, which could take us to 90%. that’s a reckon
Countering rhetoric with reckons is a mug’s game. You believe your own ‘critical analysis’, that much is clear.
Lockdowns are not permanent measures. You seem to want to take them off the table and out of the toolbox forever with a written pledge by Government and Dr Bloomfield that they will never ever use Level 4 lockdowns again even when people are dropping like dead flies. Might have to change at least one Health Act. Mate, you’re dreaming!
Lockdown isn’t working because you say so? ‘kay, enough said.
Correcting breaches and leaks in/of our public health measures is not the same as “more stringent lockdowns”. Before you irk me more with putting words and meanings in my mouth you’d better start reading comments here better.
These results are from an online survey of 2,334 respondents in New Zealand aged 16 years of age or over. The survey was conducted between 24 and 29 August, 2021.
The sample is weighted on age, gender, employment status, ethnicity, personal income and region to match the 16+ population and at the most recent census. It is also weighted to reflect the overall percentage of New Zealanders 16+ vaccinated as at 11:59pm on 29 August 20211.
At a 95% confidence level, the survey has a maximum margin of error of ±2.0% overall.
That’s a whole load of ‘reckons’ there plus a comparison with all the previous surveys. However, as a true hard-out post-modernist, you think that your reckon is equal to that!?
Many, many countries have found a path through covid and are now moving on to a new normal.
The UK's "new normal" yesterday was 34,526 new cases and 167 deaths.
The US's "new normal" yesterday was 61,570 new cases and 1,217 deaths. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
One reason this "new normal" is 'acceptable' in the USA and the UK is that the governments of those countries failed so abysmally to prioritise health.
In the US of A, 710,000 tragic deaths have been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's a deaths rate of ~0.21% (i.e. slightly more than one in 500 US citizens), about three and a half times more than the recorded global average. In the UK, one in 500 have also died from COVID-19.
In NZ, 27 deaths have been officially attributed to the pandemic, giving a death rate of 0.00054%, 110 times less than the global average.
The point is, the USA's COVID death rate is ~385 times greater than NZ's. In this particular pandemic, you want to be this bloke (NZ); you do not want to be like these blokes (MUSAGA; FreedumUK).
Your narrative is just a repetition of the opinions of people like Key, Act and the brown nosing mindless mainstream media. The only thing you left out was the bit about Jacinta creating a “ climate of fear”.
An “orchestrated litany of lies” seems to be an apt description.
Dupe of feral with only 8 cases in NZ as opposed to 800 in Victoria you are spreading the virus of misinformation.
Trying to bundle one jurisdiction into a totally different country with borders and NZ's health system which can't cope with even small numbers of covid patients.
Oh dear, it doesn't sound promising next week for Auckland with headlines in Stuff like "Auckland's move to level 2 unlikely if status quo continues". When you click on the article the headline changes to below that doesn't sound as bad.
For the Labour right, success in elections comes from reassuring the ruling class that its wealth and power are safe in Labour’s hands. The left must be reduced to its customary role of marching, demonstrating, a political sideshow. Rupert Murdoch will put his arm round Starmer or his successor, as he did with Blair.
In a way it is useful for everyone to know for certain that UK Labour is no place for progressives, rather than deluding themselves. Will an alternative emerge?
That show of might may be to shore up his image at home, similar to what the Russians used to do, and North Korea. Things are faltering in their economy.
It can definitely dominate the South China Sea, maybe take Taiwan if it's happy to get a bloody nose in the process, but there are a number of areas that will still take decades to develop.
Their carrier force is still small and not yet anywhere close to the ballpark of 0 supercarrier task forces.
Their long range strike capabilities are apparently limited by their engine tech (something about forming the turbine blades as cohernet individual crystal structures).
Their hypersonic missiles are well-touted, but you need something to point them at. They mght or might not be able to have ubiqitous surveillance over SCS good enough to target vessels, but the Pacific in general? Probably not.
And a lot of their tech is relatively untested. E.g. Russia sent SU57s to Syria along with personell and ground equipment (and a dismal effort by Kuznetsov).
Anyone wonder why several NZ banks have had DDOS attacks and a major supermarket chain have sever IT disruptions recently? Someone's having fun: maybe a state actor just probing our infrastructure.
Agreed. War with China will wipe out civilization in a flash. We were incredibly close. Trump was psychotic enough to push the red button. De-escalation please.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Xi wants any de-escalation to be on China’s terms. And unfortunately the Americans want it to be on the US’s terms.
Both sides are really pushing hard at the edges of provoking the other. The Chinese by harrassing US & other foreign ships & planes, & the US and others by pointedly sailing into areas China’s claiming as ITS territorial waters.
A major live-firing incident might not be all THAT far off. Then we will see whether one or both sides can calm down & negotiate. Xi, I worry, is possibly wanting to actually TEST China’s military against the US in some kind of a skirmish. What the US then does will be the critical factor, I imagine.
Sorry Ad. Didn’t mean as “uncritical war porn”. Saw it as relevant to the recent post on the CPTPP VS NUCLEAR SUBS, & the extensive commenting that that generated on China’s armament drive & its worryingly muscular foreign & military postures, re Taiwan & its claims to the South China Sea.
This brief Aljaz tv news item looks at some of the most recent military hardware that the PRC is clearly adverstising to its potential adversaries. That drone they show is the biggest drone I think I’ve seen.
There used to be in some quarters a belief that the Chinese weren’t great at inventing stuff, that they were basically copiers (same argument was often made about the Japanese). They’ve certainly been long-criticised for basically forcing foreign companies operating there to hand over details of their trade secrets – effectively purloining their intellectual property.
But it appears to me that China is now fadt developing its own inventions – in areas such as AI & integrated military systems and hardware. It now seems to be past the point where it needs to get hold of other countries’ secrets.
Presumably at the same time they will publish the modelling that tells them the number of cases to be expected, and the number of deaths.
As another consequence of their plan, they also release their plans for instantly upgrading the ICU awards and how they are going to recruit the required doctors and nurses.
They care about their donor's businesses, not lives.
Judith Collins says the National Party plan to let Kiwis into the country for Christmas has been "expert-reviewed", but it apparently doesn't put a number on how many could die as a result.
But like driving, Collins says it will include some risk.
"When we drive cars, we understand that there are going to be some people who are injured and occasionally people will lose their lives," she told The AM Show on Wednesday. "It doesn't stop us driving cars."
Wrong analogy. When they find a technical fault with a type of plane all those planes tend to be grounded until checked and fixed if necessary. Driving a car is too innocuous, unless it is a car without WOF & Rego by an unlicensed and uninsured driver who’s over the limit and in bad weather conditions.
Innocuous. Definition "not harmful or offensive". Synonyms include " unexceptionable, harmless, unremarkable, commonplace."
There were about 350 New Zealand road deaths in 2019 and 320 in 2020. That is an unremarkable number is it? At what point would you begin to worry and how does the number that might bother you compare to the number of Covid 19 deaths that you will accept?
Obviously, the analogy was, as was Judith’s, to create a certain perception with the average Kiwi, who’d find driving a car rather innocuous indeed, I reckon, and generally considers themselves a better than average driver. That same person is unlikely to grasp for statistics of deaths caused by traffic accidents and compare those to predictions of fatalities caused by Covid-19, unless they’re you, obviously.
You’re grasping for straws to score a silly point, as per usual.
Your comment is dismissed as useless and irrelevant, as per usual.
Perhaps Judith has a car that once it has an accident, causes the car it just hit to careen of wildly and crash into another 3 or 4 cars, which in turn do the same, and so on, infinitely. (Or at least till all the cars on the road at the time are munted.)
According to Collins and Bishop, the plan has been peer reviewed by experts. However, during today's announcement the pair declined to reveal any names. "We're not naming the experts we engaged with publicly, because they're in prominent positions and don't wish to be named publicly," said Bishop.
Paora Goldsmith has become camera-shy in fear of falling into more self-inflicted holes. The good man has a reputation to uphold for when he has to find a new job at the end of 2023.
"So nothing that is not already either being done, or in the pipeline.".
Are the current Government really supercharging the rollout? The figures say the the opposite seems to be happening. In the first week of September, when they seemed to be trying, there were 387,000 first doses. Last week there were only 144,000. Why the slowdown? We have only vaccinated 65% of the total population so far so there would appear to be about 1,800,000 people who have had a single dose yet..
Have our Government ordered vaccine boosters? When did they do it, how many have been ordered and what are the delivery dates for these?
Expand our ICU capacity? Have the current Government really done that? We may have a bit more equipment but we don't appear to have the people to use them. According to ICU doctor Craig Carr, who is the New Zealand regional chair of the Australia NZ Intensive Care Society. "We now have more equipment compared with 18 months ago, but we actually have very few extra staff, and in some instances, we've got fewer staff,"
That is just 3 of the 10 items but I can't see that, as you appear to believe, the current Government is already doing these things. I haven't bothered to check out the other 7 items but I don't really expect to find the Ardern Government is doing any better there. Perhaps you could provide some evidence that they are, if you can find any.
The number of ICU beds has increased from 150 to nearly 700.
But that would need to increase to 2,000 or3,000 just to cope with Nationals policy.that would require 1,000's more trained staff do we steal them from other countries who are struggling.or do we wait 6 to 10 years of training to bring up the numbers.
National can make any claims they like but none can be met because by the time they theoretically get into power 2023 the world will be different.
Alwyn the govt has ordered nearly 6 million doses of astra zeneca. Millions of Johnson and johnson's vaccine.
Then the govt will have over 2 million spare doses of Pfizer enough to give all vulnerable groups a booster dose.
Mixing vaccines may give higher immunity.
Luckily we have the research from countries in a far worse situation than us.
i see that Hooton has crawled out from under his rock again. calls for govt to give up its Covid response, and civil disobedience if he doesn’t get his way. what a dork.
The scenes of violence and rioting in Australia against covid mandates and restrictions inflamed by Far Right figures and personalities.
Convince me that Mathew Hooton is a far worst than a dork.
Dictionary definition: Dork – A person regarded as stupid, foolish, awkward, clumsy, etc.
Calling for, (inciting), civil disobedience, against the government's efforts to contain the virus, needs to be condemned in the harshest terms. In my opinion the words sabateur and traitor are not too harsh to describe Mathew Hooton.
Nah, I’m trying to capture Jenny’s apparent ‘reasoning’ in simple logical language, i.e. the enemy of enemy is my friend kind of stuff and everything else flowing from there. Way too much focus on who some of the protesters are and not enough of the reasons why some do join the protests. Another variation is shooting the messenger but not addressing the message. You can also see this here on TS in how some commenters want to deal with people who have questions, doubts, reservations, hesitations about getting vaccinated against Covid-19; it is not open-minded listening to others’ concerns but hardline exlusion to far-out corners of our public health system if not of our society in general. A public debate is needed, as always, but not on those terms. IMHO.
Nah, I’m trying to capture Jenny’s apparent ‘reasoning’ in simple logical language,….
…….A public debate is needed, as always, but not on those terms. IMHO.
I have been very clear, that I think that this debate should be held with the various grass roots stake holders in society. Faith Groups, Unions, Employers, Sports Associations, etc.
It would be great if you could tell us where and with whom in your Honest Opininion this needed public debate should be held.
I looked it up, interesting story. Yes Hooton is a propaganda merchant for the other team. I think some of his Covid reckons are dangerous and irresponsible, in the middle of a life threatening pandemic, but not quite in the category of treasonous communications in wartime
A few other RW "influencers" have also been hyping civil disobedience, & sad we're not like the Australians. I bet Hooton would be nowhere near the Frontline.
In better & more sane news, the port workers are at 95% vaccinated! Showing disinformation can be fought against, & also very few people listen to fucking Hooton
On Monday, as the deadline for vaccinations for about 600,000 nursing home and hospital workers arrived, it seemed that bet had proved to be at least partially correct.
With just days or even hours to spare, thousands of health care workers got inoculated, according to health officials across the state. And while thousands more workers remained unvaccinated, and thus in danger of being suspended or fired, the rush of last-minute vaccinations appeared to blunt the worst-case scenarios for staffing shortages that some institutions had feared.
[…]
In the Bronx, Dr. Eric Appelbaum, the chief medical officer at St. Barnabas Hospital, said that some unvaccinated employees who had been anxious about getting the shot had simply put the matter out of their minds — until the mandate made it impossible to ignore any longer.
As recently as last Wednesday, more than 20 percent of the hospital’s roughly 3,000 staff members had yet to get their first dose. By late Monday morning, that number had plummeted to just 6 percent, Dr. Appelbaum said.
Top down, mandated restrictions by the appointed authorities work to a point. But only to the point where they start to encounter resistance, non-compliance and possibly even hostile defiance.
To get to 90% vaccination coverage, mandates, regulation and compulsion alone, will not be enough. We need to win hearts and minds as well.
The government need to fund a society wide targeted information blitz.
Every sector; Faith Groups, Unions, Employers, Sports Associations, need to be on board, and provided with the resources to encourage their parishoners, union members, employees, players & supporters, to get vaccinated.
Henry Cooke never mentioned the word mandate. I never said he did. I was talking about the government's mandated lockdowns, and other mandated restrictions, the internal border between Auckland and the rest of the country, and the MIQ facilities at the national border, both of which are continually dealings with openly defiant rule breakers. And more and more breaches.
I was pointing out that these government mandated restrictions on freedom of movement, (which I support), have their limitations, especially if the government can't take the people with them.
I was suggesting that we need to win people over to willingly support measures like vaccination, rather than force people to have vaccinations by top down mandates.
I think this is a fair comment. I don't know how you can possibley make out that this comment, makes me an 'authoritarian, fearful control freak'?
I am in fact a convinced democrat.
The more democracy the better.
So I can understand where you are coming from; Maybe you would like to explain your reasoning behind your ad hominem insults.
You said that “[t]op down, mandated restrictions by the appointed authorities work to a point” and that “[t]o get to 90% vaccination coverage, mandates [my bold], regulation and compulsion alone, will not be enough”. I suggest you learn to word your comments better if you’re not actually in favour of and advocating for mandates from above. As it stands, very many comments of yours come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism and its handmaid absolutism. Just saying.
"As it stands, very many comments of yours come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism and its handmaid absolutism. Just saying." Incognito
You keep saying this, but never give an example. How about give us just one example, just one, of my "very many comments" that you claim "come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism".*
|Even in this case. Dispite how you try and twist my meaning. I was very clear, I was not calling for more top down mandates. i was instead advocating an appeal to all groups to willingly support the government's vaccination campaign, How on earth you can claim that calling for more grass roots consultation with all the stakeholders in society rather than top down imposed mandates is something "Only authoritarians and other fearful control freaks do" escapes me.
“Has a whiff of…” is an admission by you that your disagreement is a subjective view.
This is not the first time that you have said you don't like "the smell" of my comments.
An emotional response, suggestive of smell, whiff etc, are not objective fact based criticisms.
(Typed words literally don't have a smell, even less so on a computer screen).
I am sorry you disagree with my views, but I do not apologise for them, just because you disagree with them.
All I ask is that if you don't like my views, but feel moved to comment on them, instead of indulging in fact free personal ad hominem insults, provide a rational fact based critique, of why I am wrong,
You never know, we all might learn something.
At the very least it will lift the level of debate.
You wrote this, and I’ve added my emphasis, so that you can follow my reading of it:
To get to 90% vaccination coverage, mandates, regulation andcompulsion alone, will not be enough. We need to win hearts and minds as well.
That doesn’t read to me as “i [sic] was instead [my bold] advocating an appeal to all groups to willingly [my bold] support the government's vaccination campaign”.
It reads to as in addition to. Your comments are ambiguous and lack clarity of meaning and they often don’t pass the sniff test.
I used the word 'instead' in the context of instead of mandated compliance alone. Not instead of all mandated compliance. You are deliberately trying to twist my meaning with selective cherry picking.
I am not against all regulation, (and never said I was) My view is that it needs, as much as is possible to be done with a mandate. Simply imposing regulations especially around sensitive areas of people's freedom of movement, (lockdowns), and bodily intrusion, (injections). Disempowers people and leads to the sort of scenes we saw in Australia. We don't want that here. If we want to get to 90% vaccine coverage, (which is a very high bar,) it is my opinion, that it can't be done with compulsion alone.
Therefore I suggested that the governent begin an outreach program to win over the various grass roots stakeholders in society. Unions, Faitth Groups, Sports Bodies, Employers, etc.
I really can't understand your objection to such an idea.
As usual, you’re going around in circles; so many words, so little clarity.
Let’s see whether you can shed any light on what you actually mean.
What specific “mandate”, “mandated compliance”, “regulation”, or “compulsion” do you have in mind when trying to achieve 90% vaccination coverage of the 12+ eligible population if it is not a mandate to get vaccinated?
Try keep your answer under 100 words and to the point, please.
Human beings are social creatures, generally speaking, where our peers go, we go.
If all the various disparate groups and organisations that make up our society can we won over to the vaccine campaign, their members will be won over too.
This initiative is being done in a partunership between the Canterbury District Health Board and local Businesses.
If we are to achieve the 90% target, which is something few countries have been able to achiever. It is my opinion; We need lots more initiatives like this.
…..An ambitious campaign has been launched to get 90 per cent of eligible Cantabrians jabbed by Labour Weekend – in less than four weeks time.
Businesses have thrown their weight behind the plan, which aims to make Canterbury the most Covid-19 protected region in the country.
…..Local marketing and communications company Harvey Cameron has collaborated with the Canterbury Clinical Network, the Canterbury District Health Board and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce to produce a quick fire campaign – dubbed ‘90% Canterbury – we’re worth it’ – within days.
That doesn’t answer the question not does it provide any clarity of what you meant, just more bedazzled befuzzled irrelevant nonsense. At least you kept it <100 words, this time although you replied to yourself (!?) with something else that has no hint of “mandate”, “mandated compliance”, “regulation”, or “compulsion”, which is consistent with the piece by their colleague and fellow Stuff author Henry Cooke, as I commented on previously.
"Social media should shut down conspiracy theorists or at the very least promote science and vaccine efficacy."
Shutting them down is giving them currency. They simply find another platform, and scream how true they must be because they were shut down. Some real medical professionals giving simple explanations of the actual science is the way to go IMHO.
"As farmers, families like mine received an enormous amount of benefit from the state, had almost no constraints on our actions, and often paid almost nothing in tax. In terms of per capita investment by the state, there has never been such a privileged class in New Zealand history."
"At heart their message is simply a plea to stop the clocks. For some, it is proving very hard to move on from living in a past version of New Zealand where they were the nation’s most privileged citizens."
The politics of nostalgia in the Groundswell protests.
The ones that dont pay alot of tax (some do by the way) are the ones heavily indebted, the system is rigged in favour of the those that borrow and pour any money left over from interest rates into spending on capital development.
They dont want people debt free because they will be less productive, I read a ealy 1900s nz article that stated this but have never been able to find it again sorry.
As for the groundswell I'd love to see a reporter go ask a good number of them next time what they are in fact protesting, I'd imagine most haven't a clue,
Fonterra have many farmers in a bind. Banks have high self interest, so unless you are factory farming life can get difficult. Those farmers trying to pivot to less destructive farming methods need support with $ incentives to transition imo.
A bit sad really in that the farmers are not able to give a clear slant on just what their prime beef is. Is Groundswell really a farming lobby or people with a purely right wing political agenda? Not Fed Farmers or National Party? Hmmm?
Groundswell? Loose affiliation of the disgruntled, the disorientated and the dismayed. Bound to succeed in overturning what the rest of us have already come to terms with 🙂
It isn't just political power they want the clocks wound back for. A return to a time where the primary producer is paramaount in their local market, as opposed to having to meet the supermarkets often one-sided terms and conditions.
How is Stuff funding the daily stories about people missing out on MIQ spots? When ever they have comments on the story, the main theme is "yes, it's tough for everyone but we have to manage returns so our people and our economy are safeguarded". Yet story, after story, after story – it feels like a funded campaign.
Where is the story after story about people catching covid-19 in the community and having their lives turned upside down – where is the balance? Or just anyone who has been screwed by lockdown – funerals, hospital visits etc.
Yes. The media supported campaign to denigrate this government reminds me of similar campaigns from past political climes including the latter half of the Helen Clark regime followed by the insidious campaigns against David Shearer and his successor, David Cunliffe – not to mention the officially sanctioned effort (at least in part) to discredit Phil Goff. I noted Barry Soper's latest diatribe has another go at the "governmentruling by fear" meme :
These second rate tabloid journos are an integral ingredient of these insidious campaigns, while the first-class journalists and commentators have been banished to the back of the room. You find them in places like newsroom;
"he media supported campaign to denigrate this government "
You have got to be joking.
Tova O'Brien and Jessica Mutch McKay are might as well just put cheerleader outfits on with big "A"s on them at Ardern's pressers and when they write about the current govt
Do you know who said that? David Shearer. Labour didn't need the media to point out their shortcomings…they were eating each other from within. Watching National over recent months is almost like experiencing deja-vu.
Disclosure: I'm currently in MIQ – day one at the Crowne Plaza after returning from the UK where I've been living and working the past 3 years until my visa expired in August.
I've been (and still am) on 4 different private FB groups as I've gone through the process of securing an MIQ voucher over the past 4 months. There are 1000's of people in the groups, and there are often requests made to them/us from journalists/reporters for returnees stories. (and no shortage of stories). No funded campaign needed.
It was the loveliest of sights. Followed by hearing the familiar cadence of the kiwi accent, and the army/defence man on the bus telling us we'd be 'sweet as' once we'd had our first clear PCR and could have a daily walk. I didn't realise how much I missed the voices of people who sound like me! (Mind you, I've been living in Newcastle where the Geordie accent reigns and I'm not sure who had more trouble initially being understood- me, or them.)
Welcome back. Our son posted a video of a crowd of Kiwis doing a spontaneous haka on the Gold Coast. It was really rousing, and was greeted with cheers and clapping. Grant said he felt a real sense of "us".
This virus has made us rethink much. Hope it goes well for you. Feel free to chat here about your experiences. We haven't quite turned into Hobbits yet.
It would be interesting to know what kind of stories the journalists/reporters are after… whether they are interested in the good experiences or just the bad ones.
From what we have heard thus far, it seems to be mainly the bad ones.
Generally the reporters requests are for returnees experiences with specific aspects of the MIQ booking system and its evolution. For example, back in June/July they wanted to communicate with returning citizens about the use of third parties; the reasons people were resorting to it, and the actual technical process of booking. (This was when you had to sit at your computer refreshing constantly for hours at a time for weeks if you wanted any chance at all to book a spot – this was my experience, with a few all-nighters as well thrown into the mix)
There was also a call out for stories from people living with disabilities who were unable to use the system at all, as it wasn't set up to be accessible for them. (Kiwi citizens who are blind for example, or those with physical disabilities that wouldn't allow for the use of lightening fast keyboard use for hours on end)
There were requests from reporters for kiwi citizens who were being refused emergency allocations under the different criteria. (there are around 350 emergency allocations set aside every 2 weeks, but only 50% of them are generally allocated. Brigadier Rose King, joint head of MIQ, has said that "this is a limit, not a target".
Now they are interested in stories from returning citizens who are navigating the new MIQ booking system, which is more of a lottery system – so you enter your passport number when the lobby opens, and are then assigned a random number, which indicates where you will be in the queue for that specific room release. (They have just run the second room release under the new system yesterday)
There have been a couple of independent film-makers in the ex-pat community who put a call out for returnees to follow them through to their returns, and their experiences when back in NZ. (I don't like to be filmed so never put my hand up for these! Or any of the other requests.)
I guess the reality is that good news doesn't really get the ratings, and unfortunately, from the returning citizen's perspective, the MIQ booking system itself has been pretty horrible to navigate. And it really is the booking system itself, rather than the need to isolate/quarantine at a facility, that has so many returning citizens despairing.
I do feel very lucky to have been able to come home. It was a bit scary there for a while, as I didn't want to be an illegal overstayer in the UK, and be unable to work or rent. Thankfully the UK govt put in place a visa extension scheme called 'Exceptional Assurance' for citizens from countries with no flights home, or in the case of New Zealand, 'no room at the inn' so to speak, to at least make sure we don't end up with black marks on our passports. I don't know how much longer they will continue the scheme though, as they extended it somewhat begrudgingly again only after an intervention from the NZ High Commissioner.
Thankyou for your in-depth reply. It will take some time to digest it all.
I understand how stressful it must be for those desperate to return to NZ but I guess the government is trying to manage and absorb not too large a number of returnees at a time so as not to run the risk of compromising our Delta variant status. Hence the need to stagger the MIQ places over a longer period. Hopefully most will be able to return by Xmas or soon afterwards.
There was also a call out for stories from people living with disabilities who were unable to use the system at all, as it wasn't set up to be accessible for them. (Kiwi citizens who are blind for example,…
I find it a bit disingenuous they concentrate on the disabled because of course we are disadvantaged no matter what situation we find ourselves in. As someone who now has to live with severe arthritis I can attest to that. It comes across to me as an opportunity to include a few sob stories because they think it will create a stir among the great unwashed. I use the term "unwashed" only in a rhetorical sense.
Years ago I worked in a NZTV entity so I know a little bit how the journos' and broadcasters' minds work.
Anne, yes, that request did feel opportunistic – it came after an RNZ story on the 30 complaints to the Human Rights Commission about the lack of accessibility, one of which was spurred by the President of the Blind Union being unable to utilise the system. It felt like other media outlets were trying to play catch up with their own versions.
What feels yucky to me also, is the attempts to make MIQ and the issues of returning citizens into a political football game. It just ends up creating even more division between Kiwis who need to come home, and Kiwis at home. I really don't believe for a minute that Seymour or Collins care about Kiwis stuck overseas – it feels like they just see a crack in Labours wall, and want to wedge it open wider to score political points, flapping our stories about like gloating bait. But there is a crack…
I think given that New Zealand's ex-pat community is so large, and the ability to facilitate the numbers seeking to return is constrained by the infrastructure available to keep everybody safe – both returning kiwis and kiwis on the ground – sadly, it may be well into 2022 before the appx 30,000 who tried for spots in yesterdays room release can return. I really wish it was otherwise.
My goodness, you've got it sussed and you have only just arrived back into the country.
You are right about Seymour and Collins – and Chris Bishop. They have been playing politics with Covid from the start and with some success. They don't give a damn about the plight of overseas Kiwis. They're just using them as a stick to beat the government with. Sad that a lot of NZers are falling for it.
That was an enlightening piece on RNZ this morning. When FADS was highlighted the way it was, I couldn't help but think there was a 'deserving sick' vibe to the PTB thinking.
By alcohol industry, you mean consumers of alcohol.
I'm saying the public would barely notice the increase if it was simply passed on to them…..however under the philosophy of never let a chance go by I could easily imagine alcohol manufacturers and importers wail loudly so as to make additional profit under the mask of "It's a TAX"
Building specialised MIQ away from Auckland is actually a good idea. Just not in the way National intends. When the Northern Hemisphere Winter brings mountains of fresh corpses, New Zealand will belatedly realise it can't re-open borders in 2022 either
Personal statement: Brian Tamaki and his ungodly protest do not represent me. He is a public menace and a wolf in sheep's clothing, seeking to profit from a public health crisis. 2 Corinthians 11:5 warns against "super-apostles"
The Bible requires masking, quarantines and arguably vaccine passports:
45 “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.
It's not as bad as it sounds: 33 of the 45 are household contacts, of the 12 remaining, 6 have known links at the moment. And most of these cases were expected.
Chippie summed it up well at the presser: National promises Covid for Christmas!
Still at least 6 out and about probably another 6 on top… covids tentacles are winding back into the community… think thats the number to watch because Aucklands pretty damn busy and social distance is reducing… work bubbles are mixing… in the line for a pie and a coffee…
Do we hold our nerve, or do we go back to level 4 in a bid to stamp it out? Look how efficiently it spreads in NSW which is sorta in a level 3 lockdown…
Damn this second jab I had yesterday is washing me out much worse than the first one. I'm about 20% down in energy today whereas I was 10% down on the first one.
I won't go into too much detail on my first one as don't want to put anyone off except it involved a bit of vomiting the next day, but I was the opposite.
I thought I was good to go after the second – for a little over 24 hours and then it hit me. Came over all hot and flustered and generally feeling like shit so I took to the scratcher. Got up next AM as good as gold.
looks like I lucked out on those, then – barely any problems whatsoever. To the degree that I had a wee sore bit on my arm from the injection, then realised that I'd gotten the shot on the other arm lol.
2nd shot had nothing I can recall (except the memory loss maybe? lol).
First dose I was a bit crook second dose pretty much flattened me – runny nose, exhausted and aching all over = about 3 days of snoozing with sedatives and pain killers (from my prescription supply)
I found the best bet if you are working during the week is just try to get it if you can either on a Friday arvo' or Saturday. Then if you have a bit of a reaction you have a day or 2 to get over it.
When the world goes crazy about someone 'crossing the border' or 'escaping,' the report of the Auckland cop helping his whanau or friends doesn't read well at all.
The stories of the hardship and the harrowing stories about people missing funerals and weddings are legend already.
Accepting the news story as is, the man put his personal feelings and wishes ahead of his responsibilities. Fair enough, good for him. No doubt he weighed things up, looked at all the angles. He came to the right decision for him, the wrong decision for all others who have have suffered adverse border rulings.
But, the system expects everyone who is in a fraught position to bite the bullet and not cross. The system expects that border checks will stop them. Most will turn and go home, their attempt foiled. On the surface it is easy to infer the guy abused his position, his word or uniform to get through.
If his priority is to his family or friends let him leave the police and do other things. His mana will be enhanced in his whanau because he was prepared to sacrifice his job for them. Sure he was in a tough position. It's 2021, he and they haven't got that on their own.
He is a pillock, I'm sure his superiors will want his guts for garters.
They really haven't got a clue. When this virus passes and that will probably be 'hopefully faster than we might assume what then with all the excess beds and very expensive equipment that needs replacing even if isn't doing anything because of redundancy of the technology. In normal circumstances we have plenty of ICU/HDU beds. Now nurses, it takes a long time to train an ICU nurse .
1, they need patients to train on, even now we only have an extra 3 or 4 covid ones a day.
2.. there is a huge array of equipment to master it is almost a 5 year apprenticeship.
3.. it takes a pretty special person to be one. It is one on one care usually for 12 hours with very little time off ( 12 hours so that the number of nurse changes a day is minimised because changeovers are when mistakes happen ) and the expert observational skills required to look after someone who is pretty much comatose take a long time to acquire.
Its a 2 semester course at Auckland University , a few hours per week plus study. of course supervision still needed once graduated.
For this course, you can expect 40 hours of lectures, 160 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 100 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.
Its like teaching, to become 'fully qualified' means you have reached top of scale after 8-10 years. Still can be a classroom teacher during that time with mentoring
I think you mean surgical registrars – yes, as it so happens, I have heard of them.
As you rightly point out, training an ICU (Critical Care) Nurse requires much more than one course at University.
The question was not what nurses (or doctors) in training can do in and as part of their training, but how long it takes to train them and complete their training. It is even in National’s Plan, strangely enough:
It takes around a decade to train specialist nurses and doctors for ICU, which is time we don’t have.
Who would have thought?
Different candidates have different entry levels and thus different entry points. Well, duh!!
I think taking the vote on leadership away from labour members and allowing caucus to pick the leadership should be opposed, it's nothing but a power grab from the labour right, caucus may have given us Ardern but also Goff and Shearer there's nothing to say Ardern couldn't have won a primary.
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Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Can we stop or slow climate change?
A 15.45 minute video sponsored by the Gates Foundation which makes sobering viewing.
The conclusion seems to be: yes, we can, but by God, we’d better start acting quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiw6_JakZFc
Thanks Tony.
.
The Pook Family pukekos who forage up & down my stream became quite a large extended whanau. Sweety Pook produced broods at least 3 times a year.
https://vimeo.com/262116975
ALL the adults, & any adolescent birds who can fly, feed & care for the pooklets. Bluey, the Patriarch or Koro, slept with all broods of pooklets every night, until they were old enough to build their own individual sleeping nests.
Another poster on a forum that I used to post on disagreed with my opinion about something one day, & dismissively suggested I go and talk to my pukekos about it!
So I did ! Aspen Pook just happened to be nearby over the fence at morning tea time.
I gave him a quick summary of the situation, & Aspen duly offered his view (on the poster, not the topic – try as I might I just could not get them interested in politics.)
So I went back to the forum & gave him 🐧 Aspen's opinion! 😎
"Living with Covid" https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/29/victorias-hospitals-strain-under-extraordinary-demand-as-covid-cases-surge
Our hospitals could not cope with this.
But Victoria is in lockdown, 270+ days of it. And it’s been world beating and lockdowns work to stop the spread.
time for Dan Andrews and Jacinda Adern to admit defeat and allow that lockdowns won’t beat delta.
There have been many "lockdowns" around the world. The word is used for very different approaches. Ours in 2020 was unquestionably a success, while others were half-hearted and failed.
I agree that Delta 2021 is tougher to beat. But when alternative actions to "lockdown" are proposed, we have to be hard-headed and honest about what they really entail.
Part of Victoria's "lockdown" was the use of private security (unlike NZ) and the same has been suggested by opposition parties here. But in Victoria the security breach – and virus outbreak – was so bad it led to a full inquiry and damning findings by the judge.
Unfortunately many of the alternatives are presented as easy options, when they are anything but.
& Victorias lockdown is barely comparable to NZs, apples & oranges. Lockdowns do work, unfortunately, and only work with public buy in. Crys of "we gotta give up!" undermine that public buy in & will ensure we clog up our crappy health system & a lot of sick &/or dead people.
Nope, Labour are doing the right thing, until science says otherwise.
We've had an incredibly successful response… now being consciously undermined by muppets (and a quite clear media narrative).
Yes, Level 4 with Bunnings. And aussies still marched.
Sounds the like arguments for socialism, <i> it wasn't real socialism</i>
Of course if you get the little flu you couldn’t in all good conscience partake of our socialist health facilities.
I'm double jabbed, wear a mask and don't have comorbities. As i'm responsible for my part in society beating this, it's unlikely i'll need too.
buuuutttt.. If i did need it then that's the price society pays for me paying taxes and acting responsibly.
Public goods aren't socialism.
Not quite.
The "no true socialism" thing is a bit like Christians predicting the apocalypse: the general direction might have been outlined, but there aren't any objective milestones along the way. Basically, everyone claims to be on the cusp of it, but heaven has not yet been achieved and everyone who claimed it before was in error: this time we're right, lol.
But NZ and Vic L4 are objectively different, both in specific businesses allowed to be open to the public and in the aggregate stringency index. Also, Vic imposed just enough to induce fatigue, so now they have (possibly superspreader?) anti-lockdown riots.
If we hadn't opened the aussie bubble we would most likely be ok still. Its Arderns on misstepon covid imho.
Pays to ignore the squeaky wheel sometimes.
I’m still waiting for all those who kicked and screamed for the open border with Australia to take personal responsibility for our current situation. After all they were happy to take the revenue and profits.
That squeaky wheel's back with a vengeance. I don't think this government's got the balls to fight it. A particular vaccination rate being enough will be more down to luck than anything else.
"… Jacinda Adern to admit defeat and allow that lockdowns won’t beat delta. "
This one might or might not beat Delta, but has already been a success in undoubtedly restraining what would otherwise be a huge outbreak by now
Yes 1 case went to 1000 total odd in a few days.
edit for ds
1000 total, not 1000 a day like in Sydney.
Sydney literally has people dropping dead from Covid in their own homes.
Our lockdown works because it's strict. Australia's ones were too muppety.
Victoria's is recognised as being one of the strictest in the world.
Many, many countries have found a path through covid and are now moving on to a new normal. New Zealand is lagging as our governments policy is lockdown until 90% where there is Delta.
This is completely unrealistic. If you believe the "experts" 90% vaccination won't happen. if you believe lockdown critics, it's unfeasible to keep people locked down until 90% without major societal impacts that will last long after covid is globally accepted.
Dogmatically sticking to lockdowns until 90% is failing this country.
nah
https://twitter.com/Thoughtfulnz/status/1440084603956461571
Amazing data and presentation there.
It shows NSW and VIC "lockdown" is equivalent to New Zealand's L3 or L2.5.
https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/state-economies-and-stringency-covid-19-containment-measures
Victoria is far stringent than any other state in lockdown, and it's numbers are beginning to outpace NSW, who are starting to relax lockdown measures.
But yeah, twitter
Thanks for the good link, which save me the effort of having to start moderating you. It doesn’t quite match the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&country=~AUS), but at least you made an effort this time to back up your reckons.
BTW, what is your problem with the cellphone data from the Google Mobility Report? Don’t like data taken on the ground because it doesn’t suit your ‘critical analysis’ and narrative? Sounds like you’re shooting down the medium (Twitter) instead of addressing the content. Now why would you that?
Jim works harder than Jane.
That says nothing about whether Janice is handling both their workloads and then some.
Vic has a tough lockdown compared to Sweden, for example. They're both still half-arsing it though.
Victoria still had garden centres, cafes, gyms open didn't it? Now that's a shambles.
We're slow but not disastrous. 8 new infections yesterday.
Next Monday isn't too long to wait now.
First one to the hairdressers wins.
Yes Ad … 8 cases yesterday and 45 new cases today! That is quite a jump.
Miserable
Please stop spamming this site with your reckons and other brain farts.
For starters, what is/was the stringency index of Victoria during its lockdown. Links required and not to other/more reckons.
What does the Horizon survey show is the possible vaccine uptake of the eligible population of 12+ in NZ? Look it up, Google is your friend. The onus is on you to provide support for your reckons.
Lockdown are not permanent measures, they’re temporary ones. The main reason lockdowns are less effective or fail is because breaches, same as breaches at the border and/or MIQ. When there’s a breach or leak the appropriate action is to correct it not throw away the baby with the bathwater and spit the dummy while getting your nappies in a twist.
Hospitalisation, ICU, and death are major societal impacts too.
Why do you believe “experts” and “lockdown critics” without any critical analysis?
I don't believe them without critical analysis. I'm questioning the pathway through their rhetoric.
Lockdowns cant' be permanent, but when they're the only tool in the toolbox as you haven't been to the hardware store in preparation, you need use your one hammer many times to insert the screws.
Stingency index? does it really matter? the lockdown isn't working. But as a good little authoritarian your response to lockdowns not working is new, better, more stringent lockdowns
Horizons poll is based on the opinion of survey respondents saying they would get the jab, which could take us to 90%. that’s a reckon
Countering rhetoric with reckons is a mug’s game. You believe your own ‘critical analysis’, that much is clear.
Lockdowns are not permanent measures. You seem to want to take them off the table and out of the toolbox forever with a written pledge by Government and Dr Bloomfield that they will never ever use Level 4 lockdowns again even when people are dropping like dead flies. Might have to change at least one Health Act. Mate, you’re dreaming!
Lockdown isn’t working because you say so? ‘kay, enough said.
Correcting breaches and leaks in/of our public health measures is not the same as “more stringent lockdowns”. Before you irk me more with putting words and meanings in my mouth you’d better start reading comments here better.
I see you didn’t find the Horizon poll. You can find it in my recent (https://thestandard.org.nz/fearmongering-or-telling-it-how-it-is/). The potential uptake was 85.5% of the eligible 12+ population based on a scientifically conducted survey.
That’s a whole load of ‘reckons’ there plus a comparison with all the previous surveys. However, as a true hard-out post-modernist, you think that your reckon is equal to that!?
The UK's "new normal" yesterday was 34,526 new cases and 167 deaths.
The US's "new normal" yesterday was 61,570 new cases and 1,217 deaths.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
One reason this "new normal" is 'acceptable' in the USA and the UK is that the governments of those countries failed so abysmally to prioritise health.
In the US of A, 710,000 tragic deaths have been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's a deaths rate of ~0.21% (i.e. slightly more than one in 500 US citizens), about three and a half times more than the recorded global average. In the UK, one in 500 have also died from COVID-19.
In NZ, 27 deaths have been officially attributed to the pandemic, giving a death rate of 0.00054%, 110 times less than the global average.
The point is, the USA's COVID death rate is ~385 times greater than NZ's. In this particular pandemic, you want to be this bloke (NZ); you do not want to be like these blokes (MUSAGA; FreedumUK).
Unite against COVID-19
https://covid19.govt.nz
That "new normal" you describe has mountains of corpses. If keeping our people alive is failure, then I'm happy enough with failure.
"New Zealand is lagging as our governments policy is lockdown until 90% where there is Delta. "
To my knowledge the government has never specified a percentage. You might be thinking of National there…
Your narrative is just a repetition of the opinions of people like Key, Act and the brown nosing mindless mainstream media. The only thing you left out was the bit about Jacinta creating a “ climate of fear”.
An “orchestrated litany of lies” seems to be an apt description.
Dukell, so Jacinda is 'dogmatic'!! Wow it was 'fixated' formerly.
How is "lock down failing this country"? Facts.
Now that is dogmatic, and fixated on "open up".
Dupe of feral with only 8 cases in NZ as opposed to 800 in Victoria you are spreading the virus of misinformation.
Trying to bundle one jurisdiction into a totally different country with borders and NZ's health system which can't cope with even small numbers of covid patients.
It's been a fairly crap lockdown. Ockyland might not have the level of social cohesion it prides itself on.
Not our type of lockdown. e.g. Elite swimming still happened. 5 people to visit!!
Oh dear, it doesn't sound promising next week for Auckland with headlines in Stuff like "Auckland's move to level 2 unlikely if status quo continues". When you click on the article the headline changes to below that doesn't sound as bad.
Covid-19: Auckland's boundary 'critical' if region moves down alert level – expert | Stuff.co.nz
Geez
Re Victoria
There were thousands out on the streets protesting the lockdown- that probably accelerated the spread.
So don't have lockdowns and have thousands out on the street and that will stop the spread.
DUH
Like the kid in the old Mitre 10 ad eh? "Aussies."
Then again Brian Tamaki wants to do it here.
(Is his problem he hasn't had much publicity lately? Or with the lockdowns and restrictions he can't vacuum up the usual cash?)
Yeah take their names (Tamikis lot) etc and fine them the cost of lockdowns
You do realise that bishops move diagonally, a bit underhand really.
Although they're not as devious movers as knights. A clear demonstration of this has made the news lately
He's anointed himself "Apostle" now.
Tamaki appointed himself Apostle Bishop Brian Tamaki, some time ago. Expect Our Lord Apostle Bishop Brian Tamaki to come next!
Checkmate
Well Bishops are somewhat handicapped they literally can't see half the whole world they live in
Keep an eye out for a surge after grand final celebrations.
They've not done the right thing by each other. They've many Brian tamakis and billy tk's egged on by MP's pushing antivaxer material.
Protests, flagrant breaches and footy finals bubbles bursting. They've a way to go.
They've a fair few proudboys too.
Note to Brian Tamaki… don't protest 'till it is safe to do so.
Interesting article from Ken Loach today on the current state of the UK Labour Party.
In a way it is useful for everyone to know for certain that UK Labour is no place for progressives, rather than deluding themselves. Will an alternative emerge?
Workers Party of Britain
https://workerspartybritain.org
Leader George Galloway.
Heres an alternative to traitorist Labour, who lost the way long long ago.
A SHOW OF CHINA'S FORCE IN THE AIR
Al Jazeera English Sep 29, 2021
China has shown off some of its most advanced aircraft, technology, and weaponry at its biggest air show.
New prototype drones that can carry missiles and go on reconnaissance missions are on display in the city of Zhuhai.
The show is being held as its rivalry with the US and other Western countries intensifies – along with disputes over the South China Sea and Taiwan.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7MWpuOJZiRU
Scary Gezza China is stretching its muslces .China has the technology and manufacturing capability to become the most advanced military on the planet.
Thanks in no small part on their ability to 'acquire' the technology others have developed.
Things maybe are not going so well there at the moment, this:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-power-crunch-begins-weigh-economic-outlook-2021-09-27/
along with the building bubble bursting may keep them otherwise occupied
That show of might may be to shore up his image at home, similar to what the Russians used to do, and North Korea. Things are faltering in their economy.
we-ell not for a few years yet.
It can definitely dominate the South China Sea, maybe take Taiwan if it's happy to get a bloody nose in the process, but there are a number of areas that will still take decades to develop.
Their carrier force is still small and not yet anywhere close to the ballpark of 0 supercarrier task forces.
Their long range strike capabilities are apparently limited by their engine tech (something about forming the turbine blades as cohernet individual crystal structures).
Their hypersonic missiles are well-touted, but you need something to point them at. They mght or might not be able to have ubiqitous surveillance over SCS good enough to target vessels, but the Pacific in general? Probably not.
And a lot of their tech is relatively untested. E.g. Russia sent SU57s to Syria along with personell and ground equipment (and a dismal effort by Kuznetsov).
Anyone wonder why several NZ banks have had DDOS attacks and a major supermarket chain have sever IT disruptions recently? Someone's having fun: maybe a state actor just probing our infrastructure.
Why do we need more uncritical war porn here?
Agreed. War with China will wipe out civilization in a flash. We were incredibly close. Trump was psychotic enough to push the red button. De-escalation please.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Xi wants any de-escalation to be on China’s terms. And unfortunately the Americans want it to be on the US’s terms.
Both sides are really pushing hard at the edges of provoking the other. The Chinese by harrassing US & other foreign ships & planes, & the US and others by pointedly sailing into areas China’s claiming as ITS territorial waters.
A major live-firing incident might not be all THAT far off. Then we will see whether one or both sides can calm down & negotiate. Xi, I worry, is possibly wanting to actually TEST China’s military against the US in some kind of a skirmish. What the US then does will be the critical factor, I imagine.
Sorry Ad. Didn’t mean as “uncritical war porn”. Saw it as relevant to the recent post on the CPTPP VS NUCLEAR SUBS, & the extensive commenting that that generated on China’s armament drive & its worryingly muscular foreign & military postures, re Taiwan & its claims to the South China Sea.
This brief Aljaz tv news item looks at some of the most recent military hardware that the PRC is clearly adverstising to its potential adversaries. That drone they show is the biggest drone I think I’ve seen.
There used to be in some quarters a belief that the Chinese weren’t great at inventing stuff, that they were basically copiers (same argument was often made about the Japanese). They’ve certainly been long-criticised for basically forcing foreign companies operating there to hand over details of their trade secrets – effectively purloining their intellectual property.
But it appears to me that China is now fadt developing its own inventions – in areas such as AI & integrated military systems and hardware. It now seems to be past the point where it needs to get hold of other countries’ secrets.
I'll generate a post on a China-related matter so we can focus the debate again.
Generally I don't like video clips put up with very little commentary. Better to see one is capable of making a point.
Generally I believe I do provide some commentary or opinion when I post a link to an item. But noted, for the future, Ad. 👍🏼
All I can say to the idea that Chinese are only copiers is Gunpowder
Appears they may have actually copied that from the Mongols.
National’s COVID plan is being released at 10.
Presumably at the same time they will publish the modelling that tells them the number of cases to be expected, and the number of deaths.
As another consequence of their plan, they also release their plans for instantly upgrading the ICU awards and how they are going to recruit the required doctors and nurses.
It should make a fascinating read.
This very helpful graph by Gary Boyd is still live.
It shows NZ is running a similar number of cases at day 43 after first Delta as Victoria. 5 weeks later Victoria just registered over 1000 new cases.
That is what would be in store for us under the National Party plan.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-09-2021/#comment-1817021
Nationals policy is stating the obvious pathetic publicity stunt.
They care about their donor's businesses, not lives.
Judith Collins says the National Party plan to let Kiwis into the country for Christmas has been "expert-reviewed", but it apparently doesn't put a number on how many could die as a result.
But like driving, Collins says it will include some risk.
"When we drive cars, we understand that there are going to be some people who are injured and occasionally people will lose their lives," she told The AM Show on Wednesday. "It doesn't stop us driving cars."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/coronavirus-judith-collins-urges-govt-to-adopt-national-s-covid-plan-admits-it-could-result-in-deaths.html
Wrong analogy. When they find a technical fault with a type of plane all those planes tend to be grounded until checked and fixed if necessary. Driving a car is too innocuous, unless it is a car without WOF & Rego by an unlicensed and uninsured driver who’s over the limit and in bad weather conditions.
"Driving a car is too innocuous".
Innocuous. Definition "not harmful or offensive". Synonyms include " unexceptionable, harmless, unremarkable, commonplace."
There were about 350 New Zealand road deaths in 2019 and 320 in 2020. That is an unremarkable number is it? At what point would you begin to worry and how does the number that might bother you compare to the number of Covid 19 deaths that you will accept?
Obviously, the analogy was, as was Judith’s, to create a certain perception with the average Kiwi, who’d find driving a car rather innocuous indeed, I reckon, and generally considers themselves a better than average driver. That same person is unlikely to grasp for statistics of deaths caused by traffic accidents and compare those to predictions of fatalities caused by Covid-19, unless they’re you, obviously.
You’re grasping for straws to score a silly point, as per usual.
Your comment is dismissed as useless and irrelevant, as per usual.
Perhaps Judith has a car that once it has an accident, causes the car it just hit to careen of wildly and crash into another 3 or 4 cars, which in turn do the same, and so on, infinitely. (Or at least till all the cars on the road at the time are munted.)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/452528/covid-19-national-s-plan-calls-for-vaccination-targets-to-end-lockdowns-open-borders
So nothing that is not already either being done, or in the pipeline.
What a croc.
National's 10-steps:
10 bullet points, eh? Have they just joined Keys' 5 and Seymour's 5 together?
PowerPoint (and any more recent copycats from other 'technology providers') have a lot to answer for.
2. already done. duh
3. uh-huh. like how? by cutting the health system like your lot did last time.? hard to believe
4. already doing it. beginning to suspect that this isn't a "plan" merely a bunch of misinformed talking points.
5. see (4) above. repeating themselves now?
6. more bureaucracy? is this an attempt to kneecap the MOH or something? yayy let's invent new agencies in the middle of a crisis.
7. how, when will it be ready. can we also have lamborghinis and flying unicorns?
8. duh. "we are [already] working on new digital certificates"
9. like ivermectin? no thanks, lets follow proper medical advice
10. translation: "our plan will crash the health system and give everyone Covid, but we will chuck some more beds in ICU, she'll be right"
lol I wouldn't want my name on this list either
National’s ‘Opening Up’ plan – in a nutshell | The Spinoff
Paora Goldsmith has become camera-shy in fear of falling into more self-inflicted holes. The good man has a reputation to uphold for when he has to find a new job at the end of 2023.
Don't want to put their names to Nationals"Covid and hearses for Christmas".
Such transparency
As the Thai Bhuddist asked me with his bowl out: who gives a phuc?
Don't forget. "And tax cuts"!
"So nothing that is not already either being done, or in the pipeline.".
Are the current Government really supercharging the rollout? The figures say the the opposite seems to be happening. In the first week of September, when they seemed to be trying, there were 387,000 first doses. Last week there were only 144,000. Why the slowdown? We have only vaccinated 65% of the total population so far so there would appear to be about 1,800,000 people who have had a single dose yet..
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300417126/covid19-nz-first-doses-drop-to-lowest-rate-since-july-government-still-consulting-on-vaccine-certificates
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data
Have our Government ordered vaccine boosters? When did they do it, how many have been ordered and what are the delivery dates for these?
Expand our ICU capacity? Have the current Government really done that? We may have a bit more equipment but we don't appear to have the people to use them. According to ICU doctor Craig Carr, who is the New Zealand regional chair of the Australia NZ Intensive Care Society. "We now have more equipment compared with 18 months ago, but we actually have very few extra staff, and in some instances, we've got fewer staff,"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-have-we-boosted-hospital-icu-capacity-enough/BYKEKZQYWNBFKWQ5ZEE5Q5PWNE/
That is just 3 of the 10 items but I can't see that, as you appear to believe, the current Government is already doing these things. I haven't bothered to check out the other 7 items but I don't really expect to find the Ardern Government is doing any better there. Perhaps you could provide some evidence that they are, if you can find any.
I understand it's 2 years to train an ICU nurse…..how's that crystal ball going
The number of ICU beds has increased from 150 to nearly 700.
But that would need to increase to 2,000 or3,000 just to cope with Nationals policy.that would require 1,000's more trained staff do we steal them from other countries who are struggling.or do we wait 6 to 10 years of training to bring up the numbers.
National can make any claims they like but none can be met because by the time they theoretically get into power 2023 the world will be different.
Alwyn the govt has ordered nearly 6 million doses of astra zeneca. Millions of Johnson and johnson's vaccine.
Then the govt will have over 2 million spare doses of Pfizer enough to give all vulnerable groups a booster dose.
Mixing vaccines may give higher immunity.
Luckily we have the research from countries in a far worse situation than us.
i see that Hooton has crawled out from under his rock again. calls for govt to give up its Covid response, and civil disobedience if he doesn’t get his way. what a dork.
Matthew Hooton on LinkedIn: Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Expert says 'very resistant' tail puts level
The scenes of violence and rioting in Australia against covid mandates and restrictions inflamed by Far Right figures and personalities.
Convince me that Mathew Hooton is a far worst than a dork.
Dictionary definition: Dork – A person regarded as stupid, foolish, awkward, clumsy, etc.
Calling for, (inciting), civil disobedience, against the government's efforts to contain the virus, needs to be condemned in the harshest terms. In my opinion the words sabateur and traitor are not too harsh to describe Mathew Hooton.
Let’s see if I have this right.
If opponents=bad then advocates=good
Not sure what you're saying there Incognito. But death-cult capitalism is self evidently "bad" for most of the human race, and the planet
Nah, I’m trying to capture Jenny’s apparent ‘reasoning’ in simple logical language, i.e. the enemy of enemy is my friend kind of stuff and everything else flowing from there. Way too much focus on who some of the protesters are and not enough of the reasons why some do join the protests. Another variation is shooting the messenger but not addressing the message. You can also see this here on TS in how some commenters want to deal with people who have questions, doubts, reservations, hesitations about getting vaccinated against Covid-19; it is not open-minded listening to others’ concerns but hardline exlusion to far-out corners of our public health system if not of our society in general. A public debate is needed, as always, but not on those terms. IMHO.
Ah right. Tribalism rather than actual arguments.
(You're not the only one).
I have been very clear, that I think that this debate should be held with the various grass roots stake holders in society. Faith Groups, Unions, Employers, Sports Associations, etc.
It would be great if you could tell us where and with whom in your Honest Opininion this needed public debate should be held.
Since you addressed this roblogic I won’t pre-empt his reply to you.
The main difference between roblogic and you is that he gets it and you don’t, generally speaking.
OK, so we won't censure Hooton for treason after all? Boring 😛
Remember what happened to Lord Haw Haw.
I looked it up, interesting story. Yes Hooton is a propaganda merchant for the other team. I think some of his Covid reckons are dangerous and irresponsible, in the middle of a life threatening pandemic, but not quite in the category of treasonous communications in wartime
The paid shill does as requested.
Soon he'll probably be pimping Jude's replacement as part of nationals PR machine just like he did with muller.
yes there's more than a whiff of a co-ordinated campaign of malcontents this week
A few other RW "influencers" have also been hyping civil disobedience, & sad we're not like the Australians. I bet Hooton would be nowhere near the Frontline.
In better & more sane news, the port workers are at 95% vaccinated! Showing disinformation can be fought against, & also very few people listen to fucking Hooton
If we were fighting a war Hooton would be locked up for undermining the effort .
The Locations of Interest list is down to under 100. Surely a good sign.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-public/contact-tracing-covid-19/covid-19-contact-tracing-locations-interest
I don’t keep chickens, so entrail reading is not an option.
Bye.
A North Carolina-based hospital system has fired roughly 175 unvaccinated employees for failing to comply with its vaccine mandate.
Why it matters: It's one of the largest-ever cases of mass terminations spurred by a vaccine requirement. Over 99% of its 35,000 employees have adhered to the mandate, according to Novant director of media and influencer relations Megan Rivers.
https://news.yahoo.com/north-carolina-hospital-system-fires-174903386.html
Almost like mandates work…
On Monday, as the deadline for vaccinations for about 600,000 nursing home and hospital workers arrived, it seemed that bet had proved to be at least partially correct.
With just days or even hours to spare, thousands of health care workers got inoculated, according to health officials across the state. And while thousands more workers remained unvaccinated, and thus in danger of being suspended or fired, the rush of last-minute vaccinations appeared to blunt the worst-case scenarios for staffing shortages that some institutions had feared.
[…]
In the Bronx, Dr. Eric Appelbaum, the chief medical officer at St. Barnabas Hospital, said that some unvaccinated employees who had been anxious about getting the shot had simply put the matter out of their minds — until the mandate made it impossible to ignore any longer.
As recently as last Wednesday, more than 20 percent of the hospital’s roughly 3,000 staff members had yet to get their first dose. By late Monday morning, that number had plummeted to just 6 percent, Dr. Appelbaum said.
https://archive.li/r9YYT (nyt)
The vaccination campaign has 'hit a cliff'
"First doses have dropped massively"
Top down, mandated restrictions by the appointed authorities work to a point. But only to the point where they start to encounter resistance, non-compliance and possibly even hostile defiance.
To get to 90% vaccination coverage, mandates, regulation and compulsion alone, will not be enough. We need to win hearts and minds as well.
The government need to fund a society wide targeted information blitz.
Every sector; Faith Groups, Unions, Employers, Sports Associations, need to be on board, and provided with the resources to encourage their parishoners, union members, employees, players & supporters, to get vaccinated.
Your country needs you….
Your church needs you….
Your union needs you….
Your employer needs you….
Your family needs you….
Get vaccinated
Henry Cooke didn’t mention the word “mandate” once. Only authoritarians and other fearful control freaks do, without giving it much thought, it seems.
Henry Cooke never mentioned the word mandate. I never said he did. I was talking about the government's mandated lockdowns, and other mandated restrictions, the internal border between Auckland and the rest of the country, and the MIQ facilities at the national border, both of which are continually dealings with openly defiant rule breakers. And more and more breaches.
I was pointing out that these government mandated restrictions on freedom of movement, (which I support), have their limitations, especially if the government can't take the people with them.
I was suggesting that we need to win people over to willingly support measures like vaccination, rather than force people to have vaccinations by top down mandates.
I think this is a fair comment. I don't know how you can possibley make out that this comment, makes me an 'authoritarian, fearful control freak'?
I am in fact a convinced democrat.
The more democracy the better.
So I can understand where you are coming from; Maybe you would like to explain your reasoning behind your ad hominem insults.
You said that “[t]op down, mandated restrictions by the appointed authorities work to a point” and that “[t]o get to 90% vaccination coverage, mandates [my bold], regulation and compulsion alone, will not be enough”. I suggest you learn to word your comments better if you’re not actually in favour of and advocating for mandates from above. As it stands, very many comments of yours come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism and its handmaid absolutism. Just saying.
"As it stands, very many comments of yours come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism and its handmaid absolutism. Just saying." Incognito
You keep saying this, but never give an example. How about give us just one example, just one, of my "very many comments" that you claim "come across with a distinct whiff of authoritarianism".*
|Even in this case. Dispite how you try and twist my meaning. I was very clear, I was not calling for more top down mandates. i was instead advocating an appeal to all groups to willingly support the government's vaccination campaign, How on earth you can claim that calling for more grass roots consultation with all the stakeholders in society rather than top down imposed mandates is something "Only authoritarians and other fearful control freaks do" escapes me.
“Has a whiff of…” is an admission by you that your disagreement is a subjective view.
This is not the first time that you have said you don't like "the smell" of my comments.
An emotional response, suggestive of smell, whiff etc, are not objective fact based criticisms.
(Typed words literally don't have a smell, even less so on a computer screen).
I am sorry you disagree with my views, but I do not apologise for them, just because you disagree with them.
All I ask is that if you don't like my views, but feel moved to comment on them, instead of indulging in fact free personal ad hominem insults, provide a rational fact based critique, of why I am wrong,
You never know, we all might learn something.
At the very least it will lift the level of debate.
You wrote this, and I’ve added my emphasis, so that you can follow my reading of it:
That doesn’t read to me as “i [sic] was instead [my bold] advocating an appeal to all groups to willingly [my bold] support the government's vaccination campaign”.
It reads to as in addition to. Your comments are ambiguous and lack clarity of meaning and they often don’t pass the sniff test.
There is no contradiction.
I used the word 'instead' in the context of instead of mandated compliance alone. Not instead of all mandated compliance. You are deliberately trying to twist my meaning with selective cherry picking.
I am not against all regulation, (and never said I was) My view is that it needs, as much as is possible to be done with a mandate. Simply imposing regulations especially around sensitive areas of people's freedom of movement, (lockdowns), and bodily intrusion, (injections). Disempowers people and leads to the sort of scenes we saw in Australia. We don't want that here. If we want to get to 90% vaccine coverage, (which is a very high bar,) it is my opinion, that it can't be done with compulsion alone.
Therefore I suggested that the governent begin an outreach program to win over the various grass roots stakeholders in society. Unions, Faitth Groups, Sports Bodies, Employers, etc.
I really can't understand your objection to such an idea.
As usual, you’re going around in circles; so many words, so little clarity.
Let’s see whether you can shed any light on what you actually mean.
What specific “mandate”, “mandated compliance”, “regulation”, or “compulsion” do you have in mind when trying to achieve 90% vaccination coverage of the 12+ eligible population if it is not a mandate to get vaccinated?
Try keep your answer under 100 words and to the point, please.
'
Human beings are social creatures, generally speaking, where our peers go, we go.
If all the various disparate groups and organisations that make up our society can we won over to the vaccine campaign, their members will be won over too.
This initiative is being done in a partunership between the Canterbury District Health Board and local Businesses.
If we are to achieve the 90% target, which is something few countries have been able to achiever. It is my opinion; We need lots more initiatives like this.
That doesn’t answer the question not does it provide any clarity of what you meant, just more bedazzled befuzzled irrelevant nonsense. At least you kept it <100 words, this time although you replied to yourself (!?) with something else that has no hint of “mandate”, “mandated compliance”, “regulation”, or “compulsion”, which is consistent with the piece by their colleague and fellow Stuff author Henry Cooke, as I commented on previously.
No travel on airplanes without vaccination and testing.
Social media should shut down conspiracy theorists or at the very least promote science and vaccine efficacy.
"Social media should shut down conspiracy theorists or at the very least promote science and vaccine efficacy."
Shutting them down is giving them currency. They simply find another platform, and scream how true they must be because they were shut down. Some real medical professionals giving simple explanations of the actual science is the way to go IMHO.
"As farmers, families like mine received an enormous amount of benefit from the state, had almost no constraints on our actions, and often paid almost nothing in tax. In terms of per capita investment by the state, there has never been such a privileged class in New Zealand history."
"At heart their message is simply a plea to stop the clocks. For some, it is proving very hard to move on from living in a past version of New Zealand where they were the nation’s most privileged citizens."
The politics of nostalgia in the Groundswell protests.
An illuminating read.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/stop-the-clocks-the-politics-of-nostalgia-in-the-groundswell-farmer-protests
+10
worth the read
The ones that dont pay alot of tax (some do by the way) are the ones heavily indebted, the system is rigged in favour of the those that borrow and pour any money left over from interest rates into spending on capital development.
They dont want people debt free because they will be less productive, I read a ealy 1900s nz article that stated this but have never been able to find it again sorry.
As for the groundswell I'd love to see a reporter go ask a good number of them next time what they are in fact protesting, I'd imagine most haven't a clue,
Fonterra have many farmers in a bind. Banks have high self interest, so unless you are factory farming life can get difficult. Those farmers trying to pivot to less destructive farming methods need support with $ incentives to transition imo.
Not sure how fonterra has farmers in a bind?
Do they still have to supply milk if involved and pay if they can't…or has that stopped?
Cant help you there sorry
A bit sad really in that the farmers are not able to give a clear slant on just what their prime beef is. Is Groundswell really a farming lobby or people with a purely right wing political agenda? Not Fed Farmers or National Party? Hmmm?
Top pun that man!!
Groundswell? Loose affiliation of the disgruntled, the disorientated and the dismayed. Bound to succeed in overturning what the rest of us have already come to terms with 🙂
Thanks Robert, very insightful.
It isn't just political power they want the clocks wound back for. A return to a time where the primary producer is paramaount in their local market, as opposed to having to meet the supermarkets often one-sided terms and conditions.
Not unreasonable in my view.
How is Stuff funding the daily stories about people missing out on MIQ spots? When ever they have comments on the story, the main theme is "yes, it's tough for everyone but we have to manage returns so our people and our economy are safeguarded". Yet story, after story, after story – it feels like a funded campaign.
Where is the story after story about people catching covid-19 in the community and having their lives turned upside down – where is the balance? Or just anyone who has been screwed by lockdown – funerals, hospital visits etc.
Yes. The media supported campaign to denigrate this government reminds me of similar campaigns from past political climes including the latter half of the Helen Clark regime followed by the insidious campaigns against David Shearer and his successor, David Cunliffe – not to mention the officially sanctioned effort (at least in part) to discredit Phil Goff. I noted Barry Soper's latest diatribe has another go at the "government ruling by fear" meme :
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-barry-soper-labour-looks-rattled-and-pms-under-pressure/B7PTZL6XVH6ZQD4UGDIBMG5KPY/
These second rate tabloid journos are an integral ingredient of these insidious campaigns, while the first-class journalists and commentators have been banished to the back of the room. You find them in places like newsroom;
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/politics/covid-is-not-a-choice-for-sick-children-sir-john
"he media supported campaign to denigrate this government "
You have got to be joking.
Tova O'Brien and Jessica Mutch McKay are might as well just put cheerleader outfits on with big "A"s on them at Ardern's pressers and when they write about the current govt
"insidious campaigns against David Shearer and his successor, David Cunliffe "
"now that Mr Cunliffe has left the leadership race, he should quit Parliament altogether because Labour can do without him and his treachery."
Do you know who said that? David Shearer. Labour didn't need the media to point out their shortcomings…they were eating each other from within. Watching National over recent months is almost like experiencing deja-vu.
It would be nice if they pointed out that over 100 000 have come through miq ,just for balance.
173,000 was the last number I saw – hardly a hermit kingdom level
Disclosure: I'm currently in MIQ – day one at the Crowne Plaza after returning from the UK where I've been living and working the past 3 years until my visa expired in August.
I've been (and still am) on 4 different private FB groups as I've gone through the process of securing an MIQ voucher over the past 4 months. There are 1000's of people in the groups, and there are often requests made to them/us from journalists/reporters for returnees stories. (and no shortage of stories). No funded campaign needed.
Welcome back in NZ and here on TS
Thank you! It's wonderful to be back. (I got all tearful as we flew into the airport last night with the Southern Sky above me again…)
Nothing like seeing that land underneath you from the air once more.
It was the loveliest of sights. Followed by hearing the familiar cadence of the kiwi accent, and the army/defence man on the bus telling us we'd be 'sweet as' once we'd had our first clear PCR and could have a daily walk. I didn't realise how much I missed the voices of people who sound like me! (Mind you, I've been living in Newcastle where the Geordie accent reigns and I'm not sure who had more trouble initially being understood- me, or them.)
Welcome back. Our son posted a video of a crowd of Kiwis doing a spontaneous haka on the Gold Coast. It was really rousing, and was greeted with cheers and clapping. Grant said he felt a real sense of "us".
This virus has made us rethink much. Hope it goes well for you. Feel free to chat here about your experiences. We haven't quite turned into Hobbits yet.
I think I saw that video on FaceBook! It was great, and also homesickness inducing!
I still recall the first sight of aotearoa I had after 2 years away ! 24 years 11 months ago . Had a return ticket to the uk but never used it.
Hah! Yes, that first sighting is magical…
Welcome home NZFemme. 🙂
It would be interesting to know what kind of stories the journalists/reporters are after… whether they are interested in the good experiences or just the bad ones.
From what we have heard thus far, it seems to be mainly the bad ones.
Hello Anne,
Generally the reporters requests are for returnees experiences with specific aspects of the MIQ booking system and its evolution. For example, back in June/July they wanted to communicate with returning citizens about the use of third parties; the reasons people were resorting to it, and the actual technical process of booking. (This was when you had to sit at your computer refreshing constantly for hours at a time for weeks if you wanted any chance at all to book a spot – this was my experience, with a few all-nighters as well thrown into the mix)
There was also a call out for stories from people living with disabilities who were unable to use the system at all, as it wasn't set up to be accessible for them. (Kiwi citizens who are blind for example, or those with physical disabilities that wouldn't allow for the use of lightening fast keyboard use for hours on end)
There were requests from reporters for kiwi citizens who were being refused emergency allocations under the different criteria. (there are around 350 emergency allocations set aside every 2 weeks, but only 50% of them are generally allocated. Brigadier Rose King, joint head of MIQ, has said that "this is a limit, not a target".
Now they are interested in stories from returning citizens who are navigating the new MIQ booking system, which is more of a lottery system – so you enter your passport number when the lobby opens, and are then assigned a random number, which indicates where you will be in the queue for that specific room release. (They have just run the second room release under the new system yesterday)
There have been a couple of independent film-makers in the ex-pat community who put a call out for returnees to follow them through to their returns, and their experiences when back in NZ. (I don't like to be filmed so never put my hand up for these! Or any of the other requests.)
I guess the reality is that good news doesn't really get the ratings, and unfortunately, from the returning citizen's perspective, the MIQ booking system itself has been pretty horrible to navigate. And it really is the booking system itself, rather than the need to isolate/quarantine at a facility, that has so many returning citizens despairing.
I do feel very lucky to have been able to come home. It was a bit scary there for a while, as I didn't want to be an illegal overstayer in the UK, and be unable to work or rent. Thankfully the UK govt put in place a visa extension scheme called 'Exceptional Assurance' for citizens from countries with no flights home, or in the case of New Zealand, 'no room at the inn' so to speak, to at least make sure we don't end up with black marks on our passports. I don't know how much longer they will continue the scheme though, as they extended it somewhat begrudgingly again only after an intervention from the NZ High Commissioner.
Thankyou for your in-depth reply. It will take some time to digest it all.
I understand how stressful it must be for those desperate to return to NZ but I guess the government is trying to manage and absorb not too large a number of returnees at a time so as not to run the risk of compromising our Delta variant status. Hence the need to stagger the MIQ places over a longer period. Hopefully most will be able to return by Xmas or soon afterwards.
I find it a bit disingenuous they concentrate on the disabled because of course we are disadvantaged no matter what situation we find ourselves in. As someone who now has to live with severe arthritis I can attest to that. It comes across to me as an opportunity to include a few sob stories because they think it will create a stir among the great unwashed. I use the term "unwashed" only in a rhetorical sense.
Years ago I worked in a NZTV entity so I know a little bit how the journos' and broadcasters' minds work.
Anne, yes, that request did feel opportunistic – it came after an RNZ story on the 30 complaints to the Human Rights Commission about the lack of accessibility, one of which was spurred by the President of the Blind Union being unable to utilise the system. It felt like other media outlets were trying to play catch up with their own versions.
What feels yucky to me also, is the attempts to make MIQ and the issues of returning citizens into a political football game. It just ends up creating even more division between Kiwis who need to come home, and Kiwis at home. I really don't believe for a minute that Seymour or Collins care about Kiwis stuck overseas – it feels like they just see a crack in Labours wall, and want to wedge it open wider to score political points, flapping our stories about like gloating bait. But there is a crack…
I think given that New Zealand's ex-pat community is so large, and the ability to facilitate the numbers seeking to return is constrained by the infrastructure available to keep everybody safe – both returning kiwis and kiwis on the ground – sadly, it may be well into 2022 before the appx 30,000 who tried for spots in yesterdays room release can return. I really wish it was otherwise.
My goodness, you've got it sussed and you have only just arrived back into the country.
You are right about Seymour and Collins – and Chris Bishop. They have been playing politics with Covid from the start and with some success. They don't give a damn about the plight of overseas Kiwis. They're just using them as a stick to beat the government with. Sad that a lot of NZers are falling for it.
Nationals wish list .
Building stand alone miq facilities considering labour material shortages and that National are not in power so they can make any old claim it likes.
FAS disability costs should be funded by the alcohol industry.
Absolutely Tricledown.
That was an enlightening piece on RNZ this morning. When FADS was highlighted the way it was, I couldn't help but think there was a 'deserving sick' vibe to the PTB thinking.
By alcohol industry, you mean consumers of alcohol.
The actual change in consumer price would be quite low I believe
Are you trying to tell me the mega breweries would 'absorb' any new taxes or increase in excise?
I'm saying the public would barely notice the increase if it was simply passed on to them…..however under the philosophy of never let a chance go by I could easily imagine alcohol manufacturers and importers wail loudly so as to make additional profit under the mask of "It's a TAX"
Building specialised MIQ away from Auckland is actually a good idea. Just not in the way National intends. When the Northern Hemisphere Winter brings mountains of fresh corpses, New Zealand will belatedly realise it can't re-open borders in 2022 either
As with Tuberculosis, sanitoriums for safe recovery may well be needed for MIQ and as more people end up with long covid.
National's plan is bereft of any ideas for unvaccinated children under age 12.
No doubt users would have to pay for testing vaccine boosters and hospital stays?, true to their "User pays" values.
National. Promises Covid for Christmas!
What a cracker!
Ok, you asked for it…
Where do bad rainbows go?
Prism.
It's a light sentence.
Personal statement: Brian Tamaki and his ungodly protest do not represent me. He is a public menace and a wolf in sheep's clothing, seeking to profit from a public health crisis. 2 Corinthians 11:5 warns against "super-apostles"
https://www.gotquestions.org/super-apostles.html
The Bible requires masking, quarantines and arguably vaccine passports:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2013%3A45-46&version=NIV
Once again, I am grateful our leader is more a New Testament type.
Excellent reference arkie, thanks! I will use that.
Ouch.
45 new cases.
I am thinking bye bye level 2 next week Auckland
If it is. I feel for you. 🙁
It's not as bad as it sounds: 33 of the 45 are household contacts, of the 12 remaining, 6 have known links at the moment. And most of these cases were expected.
Chippie summed it up well at the presser: National promises Covid for Christmas!
All together now:
The first day of Christmas,
National got for me
A trip to E.D. …
Still at least 6 out and about probably another 6 on top… covids tentacles are winding back into the community… think thats the number to watch because Aucklands pretty damn busy and social distance is reducing… work bubbles are mixing… in the line for a pie and a coffee…
Do we hold our nerve, or do we go back to level 4 in a bid to stamp it out? Look how efficiently it spreads in NSW which is sorta in a level 3 lockdown…
I suspect the govt will have to decide quickly….
Damn this second jab I had yesterday is washing me out much worse than the first one. I'm about 20% down in energy today whereas I was 10% down on the first one.
I won't go into too much detail on my first one as don't want to put anyone off except it involved a bit of vomiting the next day, but I was the opposite.
Reallybad the first. Perfectly fine the second.
Different bodies react differently I guess.
Nah, you just got them done the wrong way around. You booked your second first and your first second.
Better ring them up and get it redone in the right order.
Lol
I thought I was good to go after the second – for a little over 24 hours and then it hit me. Came over all hot and flustered and generally feeling like shit so I took to the scratcher. Got up next AM as good as gold.
The second shot apparently leaves some extremely fatigued. Sounds like Ad is one of them.
looks like I lucked out on those, then – barely any problems whatsoever. To the degree that I had a wee sore bit on my arm from the injection, then realised that I'd gotten the shot on the other arm lol.
2nd shot had nothing I can recall (except the memory loss maybe? lol).
Similar. Felt so tired after the second one that I had to lie down for about 4 hours – after that I was fine.
First dose I was a bit crook second dose pretty much flattened me – runny nose, exhausted and aching all over = about 3 days of snoozing with sedatives and pain killers (from my prescription supply)
Watch for any shortness of breath ,that needs a check, otherwise rest and fluids.
Cheers you lot got mine coming in t minus 9 days , how about stiff upper lip its allgood as a response
Don't worry. Side effects are short and for the vast majority very mild if any at all.
I found the best bet if you are working during the week is just try to get it if you can either on a Friday arvo' or Saturday. Then if you have a bit of a reaction you have a day or 2 to get over it.
Worked for me any way.
When the world goes crazy about someone 'crossing the border' or 'escaping,' the report of the Auckland cop helping his whanau or friends doesn't read well at all.
The stories of the hardship and the harrowing stories about people missing funerals and weddings are legend already.
Accepting the news story as is, the man put his personal feelings and wishes ahead of his responsibilities. Fair enough, good for him. No doubt he weighed things up, looked at all the angles. He came to the right decision for him, the wrong decision for all others who have have suffered adverse border rulings.
But, the system expects everyone who is in a fraught position to bite the bullet and not cross. The system expects that border checks will stop them. Most will turn and go home, their attempt foiled. On the surface it is easy to infer the guy abused his position, his word or uniform to get through.
If his priority is to his family or friends let him leave the police and do other things. His mana will be enhanced in his whanau because he was prepared to sacrifice his job for them. Sure he was in a tough position. It's 2021, he and they haven't got that on their own.
He is a pillock, I'm sure his superiors will want his guts for garters.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-auckland-police-inspector-at-centre-of-alleged-border-favour-breach-is-top-iwi-liaison-officer/U6Q7DL7PB5HO5TJ4A2SXLEOICE/
Seems odd he couldn't get it organised as part of his job.
Another 500 CCU nurses and 200 ward nurses to staff the the extra 100 CCU beds and 800 ward beds proposed?
Dopey tory pricks really do live in lala land.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21071149/nationals-covid-19-plan.pdf
Easy to talk shit in opposition… bit like Phil Twyford and his 10000s of kiwibuild homes…
They really haven't got a clue. When this virus passes and that will probably be 'hopefully faster than we might assume what then with all the excess beds and very expensive equipment that needs replacing even if isn't doing anything because of redundancy of the technology. In normal circumstances we have plenty of ICU/HDU beds. Now nurses, it takes a long time to train an ICU nurse .
1, they need patients to train on, even now we only have an extra 3 or 4 covid ones a day.
2.. there is a huge array of equipment to master it is almost a 5 year apprenticeship.
3.. it takes a pretty special person to be one. It is one on one care usually for 12 hours with very little time off ( 12 hours so that the number of nurse changes a day is minimised because changeovers are when mistakes happen ) and the expert observational skills required to look after someone who is pretty much comatose take a long time to acquire.
We are so lucky the Nats were put out to pasture.
Train an ICU nurse ?
Its a 2 semester course at Auckland University , a few hours per week plus study. of course supervision still needed once graduated.
For this course, you can expect 40 hours of lectures, 160 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 100 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.
https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/NURSPRAC/702A
Its like teaching, to become 'fully qualified' means you have reached top of scale after 8-10 years. Still can be a classroom teacher during that time with mentoring
So much ignorant nonsense, nowadays
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300414293/covid19-icu-staff-plead-for-kiwis-to-be-vaccinated-amid-bed-nurse-shortage
Ever heard of surgical registars…they are specialist doctors in training. Still treat patients.
Same goes for existing RN, indeed the course mentioned above requires them to be working in intensive care while studying.
Thats how a major hospital works , people in training are everywhere.
I think you mean surgical registrars – yes, as it so happens, I have heard of them.
As you rightly point out, training an ICU (Critical Care) Nurse requires much more than one course at University.
The question was not what nurses (or doctors) in training can do in and as part of their training, but how long it takes to train them and complete their training. It is even in National’s Plan, strangely enough:
Who would have thought?
Different candidates have different entry levels and thus different entry points. Well, duh!!
That's also an un-modelled estimate where they've just halved the 80% numbers. Not particularly rigorous, mathematically or medically.
I think taking the vote on leadership away from labour members and allowing caucus to pick the leadership should be opposed, it's nothing but a power grab from the labour right, caucus may have given us Ardern but also Goff and Shearer there's nothing to say Ardern couldn't have won a primary.
You forgot Unions, expecting payback.